‘Member for Manila’ ordered to refund taxpayers

MEMBER for Dawson George Christensen charged taxpayers for 14 domestic flights linked to his personal overseas travel, but has only had to pay back one after an official audit.

The scathing report noted that Mr Christensen claimed "official or parliamentary business" for the flights, but at times "could not recall" what business was conducted and said that he often held meetings that were not documented.

He was required to pay back $327 for just one flight that breached the rules - charging taxpayers for a flight home from Canberra via Sydney despite no flights leaving to his homebase of Mackay from there.

It found that between 2014 and the end of 2018, the MP took 14 taxpayer-funded domestic flights to or from Brisbane or Sydney, linked to personal international flights.

But 12 of these came before parliamentary travel rules were tightened on January 1, 2018, and fell within the acceptable framework at the time.

Only one of the two remaining flights flagged by the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority (IPEA) breached the travel rules.

Mr Christensen self-referred to IPEA on April 17 last year and an investigation began shortly after.

He offered to partially repay six of the flights, when questioned by the auditor in June, but was advised to wait until the investigation was complete.

IPEA found there was no definition of "official business" under the old parliamentary travel scheme allowing MPs broad scope to act "on their own judgement".

As well as the $327 he was required to pay, Mr Christensen voluntarily repaid a further $1843 for flights and COMCAR costs that were questioned.

In a statement, Mr Christensen said he believed he saved taxpayers $4000 by not flying back to Mackay, instead finishing his travel in a capital city from where he would catch an international flight.

"In nearly all cases, decisions to terminate trips at Brisbane have saved taxpayers the cost of a flight back to Mackay," he said.

"I have now paid for flights out of my own pocket which were not only in accordance with the rules but were a result of decisions to terminate flights early which saved taxpayers thousands of dollars.